Any weight-lifters here? (Amateur)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hey all, thought I’d start a thread on a subject I find interesting.

Why do you lift?

I lift because of the health benefits, the challenge, and of course, to look good nekkid.

What routine do you like to use?

I’ve gone all over the place, but a simple 3 set 5 rep scheme seems most efficient/effective for me. Whenever I can lift a weight for 5 reps for all 3 sets, I add 5-10 pounds.

How do you measure your success and are you successful?

I measure my success by how healthy I feel - simple markers like not running out of breath during full court basketball, the amount my lifts have progressed, my body weight, and how I look.

The amount of success has been somewhat frustrating. I started late in High School, but foolishly; I only benched! Then I worked construction for a year which toughened me up, but did little otherwise. In college I made the best of the gym that I could, but I had to work, and before you know it I could hardly go.

In the middle of college I was doing farmer’s deadlifts and my ass got huge, got some cat calls and comments which made me laugh.

At the very end of college I picked up lifting again, HARD. I went from my high-school weight of 150 to a lean lean 160. At grad school I started getting comments again; people would ask about my workout, and I got an unreal amount of female attention.

Unfortunately, I fucked up big time and went completely broke. I stayed in school, barely, barely able to pay the bills. I was living off meals so minimal, and walking everywhere, trying to stay afloat, and lost all the muscle mass I accumulated since high-school.

Now I’m a full-time worker drone with access to a 24 hour gym. I am starting to put it on again! I’m 160lbs, and I can bench 160, squat 250, deadlift 250, chins with 50lb’s strapped, and push 120 lbs over my head. All for reps of five.

My long term goal is to be able to bench 240 (1.5xbw), squat 320 (2xbw), 320 deaflift (2xbw), chin up +100lbs, push press 150 lbs.
Now you!

2

I lift.
I work upper body M,W,F and legs T/Th.
I’m 53, and I’ve given up on becoming huge, but I think I can settle for really ripped…
I’m 5’7" and 165, and I bench 165 for reps. I can do 185/1. I would love to be able to do 225, but I don’t know if that’s realistic without chemical help…

My legs are pretty strong - I don’t do heavy squats because I’ve hurt my lower back in the past, but I can do leg extensions with the entire stack. It’s always an ego boost to see some monster guy sit down at the machine after I’ve used it and have to lower the weight.

I’ve taken to walking up and down the stairs at the gym while holding a 45lb plate in each hand. I can’t do this too many times before I have to rest, but I try to get 5-6 sets in.

3

I used to do that too with the stairs, but I used dumb-bells for an easier grip. That is what made my ass almost comically large in college!

At 5’7" and 165 you must be fairly stacked - did you ever want to be “huge”? At first I wanted to hit 200lbs, but now I’d be happy hitting 180.

Do you do any ab work?

What is your set and rep scheme like?

4

Many years ago I read in an article that the test of upper body strength for one of the NFL scouts was if the player could bench press his own weight at least ten times. Since then, thru reading and observation, here is my totally subjective and thoroughly useless standard for upper body strength -
[ul][li]Be able to bench body weight for ten reps - touch and go, but strict (no bouncing off the chest, no arching the butt off the bench)[/li][li]Be able to chin yourself at least fifteen times - again, strict. No kipping with the legs, all the way until your chin touches the bar[/li][li]Be able to do at least fifteen dips[/ul][/li]No doubt when I am no longer able to do these, the standards will change. :smiley:

Male, 58, about 190. I have been lifting for more than thirty years, and my long term goal is to bench 225 for ten before I die.

Regards,
Shodan

5

**Why do you lift? **

The reason I choose weight lifting is first of all because I think muscle tone is incredibly sexy. It’s also largely because it makes me feel capable. A lot of people think of women as the weaker sex, so it’s fun to push past that stereotype. Another reason is because my body is naturally well-suited to weight lifting (I’ve got broad shoulders and short limbs), and I think we’re more likely to stick with something if we have some early success. One final reason that’s only true some of the time is that weight lifting makes me feel better for the rest of the day. Sometimes that’s true, but other times I’ll get so sore that I really would have felt better if I hadn’t lifted.

What routine do you like to use?

Right now I’m doing Venus Factor. When I design my own workouts, I typically like to do a three-day split: chest/triceps day, lower body day, and back/biceps/shoulders day, with abs thrown in every day. Then I do two days of cardio and two days off.

How do you measure your success and are you successful?

This is a hard one. I’m never good enough, but I still celebrate the achievement of goals. I recently did 10 overhand pullups, which made me feel pretty successful. I spent a couple months working up to doing a one-armed push-up (as in, touching my chest to the ground, halfway down doesn’t count), so when I reached that goal I felt pretty successful as well.

But I used to be able to squat my body weight, and now I’m just short of it (squatting about 10 lbs. less), so I certainly don’t feel like a success in that regard. Also used to have a lower body fat percentage than I do now, which I feel pretty crappy about. I’ve always been pretty lousy at circuit training, so if I can improve on that I’d feel, if not successful, at least proud.

So I guess I’m successful in some regards, and in other regards, I’m a success-in-progress.

ETA: I noticed the other posters posted their stats and long-term goals. I’m 27 years old, 5’3" female, 130 lbs. (Okay, more like 132 lbs.) My long-term strength-training goal is to do a muscle-up.

6

I lift a bit.

Usually 3 sets of 8 reps 3 days a week.

I have a pretty good bench of 380, once hit 526 (single rep) in my 40’s, I’m 61 now.
5’6", 248lbs.

I try to bike 10 mi a day and do 200 pushups daily on my non-lift days.

My coach was Marty Gallagher.

7

Incredible job on the pullups! There are few people who can do that. Just think…probably less than 15% of the population can do 10…and likely a LOT less than that!

Please please please be careful on the muscle-ups - they can be quite bad for your shoulders and don’t do much functionally.

8

:)Thanks for the props – and the warning as well. Right now I’m working out at home, and don’t have a good place to practice flinging my body above a bar anyways. I’m flexible, so there are certain things I can do without pain or damage that other people can’t, but if I start focusing on muscle-ups more seriously, I’ll heed your warning and pay attention to how well my shoulders handle the stress so I can call the mission off if I need to.

9

I’m trying to picture this, and I’m visualizing a 61 year old Magnus Vermagussen. Wow, just wow.

10

I’ve always wanted to be huge, but never enough to take “products” for help… At this point I just want to see what I can do with good diet and hard work.

I work my abs every day. I’m trying something new, which seems to be effective - basically, gymnast moves - like hanging from a bar and holding my legs at right angles, or slowly lifting them above my head. I’m always amazed the the way circus gymnasts make what they do look so easy - they strength is incredible!

I follow the (old) High Intensity Training book (can’t teach an old dog new tricks…). Essentially once you can do 3 sets of 6-8. add 10%. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I don’t have a partner, which is a real issue, since I think negatives (especially on bench press) are the best way to improve.
Oh well.

11

Im on my phone, so this will be short and abbreviated. But i lift. I am 5’7" and about 120, although the majority of that mass is on my upper body (i am a paraplegic).

I train because i love pushing myself past where i thought i could previously go. I love being healthy and i love looking good. I also love the ever-present challenge of solving challenges of training from the vantage point of a paraplegic. I can incline bench 225 for 3 reps ( i do no flat benching due to torn rotator cuffs) and i can do 27 pullups while strapped into my wheelchair (after climbing up a rope to get to the pull up bar). Ive been a competitive natural bodybuilder for 7 years.

12

I lift too! I’m 6’1/215 and have been lifting for five or six years now. Due to my work, I can only workout about 45 minutes for three days a week so my routine is kind of abbreviated. Right now I’m running a 5-3-1 routine with five sets of 10 reps after the 5-3-1. This causes me to only get one excercise in per workout, but strangely I’ve seen pretty good results from this.

I can bench 305, press 175 and squat 365. I don’t really deadlift too much because I’ve noticed my knees hurting everytime I add it to my routine.

13

Have you ever tried using the Trap Bar to deadlift? I find it is better for people with mobility issues

14

I’m in my early 50s, 6’1", 195#. My current program is lifting for full body one day, doing yoga and core work the next, then running 4-5 miles the day after, repeat, then rest. My current goal is to get my deadlift up to 300# for reps; my current 1 rep max is 260.

15

I’m 39 years old, 5’7", and 212 lbs (mostly fat). I started lifting a year ago. I primarily bench, incline, and dumbbell curls. My standard set is 10 8 6 4. If I can get to 12 10 8 6, I move up to the next weight. I feel like I’ve done very well in only a year, benching 185 lbs currently. Ine thing I really enjoy about it is tracking all the data on the workouts and charting progress. It’s a great motivational feedback loop to see the steady gains.

16

I’m 46, and have lifted on-and-off since I was 25. After taking a number of years off, I am back to weightlifting. I now lift weights at the base gym twice a week.

One of the things I’ve learned – at least for my body – is that bench pressing is *really really bad *for my shoulders. I do not bench press anymore. (But I do perform military presses.)

17

I bench alone (no spotter either) and I just leave the collars off the bar. That, way, if I get into trouble, I can tilt one side and the plates slide off…

I probably move WAY less weight than you do, but it works for me. :slight_smile:

18

That works!
Actually, i do the same thing, but it’s only for emergencies…
Performing negatives is a different story, because you need a partner to help you get it up (as it were…), and then you slowly lower the bar down, repeating until total failure. So, without a partner (or some type of a rack), it’s pretty much impossible to do these alone.

19

I’m a 46-year-old female who lifts. I started a year+ ago learning to lift in crossfit. Stopped doing crossfit about a month ago and am now doing stronglifts 5x5. Because I had a good base from crossfit, I was able to start heavier on some lifts, but for the love of Mike, I suck at overhead press----to the point where I kind of wonder why I do a program that requires them.

I’d rather do thrusters all day long. And as I type this I kind of wonder… well, why keep doing OHP then?

Anyhow, I love lifting. My one-rep max for deadlifts is currently 133% of my weight. Squats are at body weight.

20

Thrusters, like a lot of explosive movements, let you move weight but don’t really help with the muscles that control a weight throughout the move. The overhead press needs a strong core to control the bar as you go up and during the pause at the top of the movement; my core is often where I feel it most the day after doing sets of them.